BeautifulPeople.com – Scammy Bullshit or Exclusive Community of International Hotties?

Recently I got a marketing e-mail from a site called BeautifulPeople.com, which purports to admit only “beautiful people.”

The e-mail was accompanied by a video of a quite homely guy and a handsome guy at a swimming pool.  A trio of hot women comment that Homely Guy (actor Michael J. Sielaff) turns them on for his intellect and other interior qualities.  They are disgusted by the hot guy because he looks like a douche.  The video supposedly makes some kind of point, like:  Hey, don’t deny the fact that looks matter.

BeautifulPeople.com says, “To become a member, applicants are required to be voted in by existing members of the opposite sex. Members rate new applicants over a 48 hour period based on whether or not they find the applicant ‘beautiful’.”

My radar told me that it wasn’t truly an exclusive community.  This exclusivity it claims is a marketing pitch.  After all, we all want to be in rarified ranks, don’t we?  And when we’re admitted to such an exclusive group, we naturally feel more willing to…pay the steep monthly fees for the ability to network and date.

In fact, the site intentionally whips up controversy.  One executive says, “We receive hundreds of emails each week from people who are furious with BeautifulPeople.com and we have experienced a continued media backlash.”  Sounds to me like he’s uttering this with a bit of pride.  After all, controversy attracts attention.

So, I decided to conduct an experiment.

Applying for “Admittance” – Real Me

First I set up a profile for myself, using my own photos. I chose a photo that I felt was fairly representative of me:  tired, grouchy, and drinking coffee.

Now, since I felt that I didn’t look much different from Homely Guy in the video, I wanted to see if I could “make the cut.”

For 48 hours, BeautifulPeople.com members feverishly voted on me (sarcasm added here), and at the end of the period, lo and behold.  Accepted.

Which immediately made me suspicious.  All I could think of was Groucho Marx’s quote about not wanting to be a member of a club that would admit him.

Applying for “Admittance” – Bogus Guy Named Leon

Next I Googled images for “ordinary-looking guy.”  I didn’t want to pick an ugly guy–simply your standard-issue 47 year-old man who isn’t handsome, isn’t ugly.

Whoever this poor fucker is, he became “Leon” for the purposes of this bogus profile.  Nasty tie aside, he looked fairly normalish.

After creating “Leon’s” profile, BeautifulPeople.com told him to wait:

Now the nail-biting begins.  My prediction:  “Leon” is accepted as a “beautiful person.”

Update:  14 Hours Left

Now that my ugly mug has been admitted to these esteemed halls, I am able to delete my profile.  Proof positive that the bar is set awfully low at BeautifulPeople.com.

After application to BeautifulPeople.com, “Leon” gets “reviewed” by members.

With 14 hours left, “Leon” gets this cryptic notice:

So, “Leon” has received 29 positive votes, but he’s squarely on the “out”?  What the hell is going on?

It remains to be seen.

48 Hours Later:  Rejected!

After the 48 hours were up, I decided to help out “Leon” by logging into his account to see if he was accepted or rejected.

Talk about jilted!  Not only was “Leon” not admitted to these ranks of exciting, beautiful people, but he wasn’t even allowed to log in.  Damn!  Talk about a slap in the face!